Since I am now living on the other side of the world to my family and most of my friends this blog is about things I enjoy, things I notice, people I meet, people I miss, history, planning for the future, love and life in general!
I guess it's about whatever pops into my head which I want to share with my friends and family... and who knows? I might make some more friends along the way!

31 October, 2010

Pondering the Poms...

I was thinking of a couple of little things which I have noticed while living in the UK, which might not register or count enough to write about anywhere, but I thought I would write anyway!

Gravy is much thinner in the UK! Seriously! When I was living at Pear Tree Farm I would often make gravy to go with sausages or roast or some other dish, and the kids would complain that the gravy was too thick! I just thought they were funny about liking thin gravy, but I have since realised that almost anywhere I have had a meal with gravy it's been very thin by comparisson to the gravy's my grandmother & mother always made! I have a theory... During the war years, & for about a decade afterwards, rationing was very strict & so little flour was available that it would have been foolish to use much of it on an 'extra' like gravy, even if you had meat to cook & dripping to make into gravy! I honestly don't know if that's the reason, but it would make sense to me if it was!

You cannot get Tim Tams, Cherry Ripe's, Twisties or Mint Slice biscuits in the UK... now how can that be right? On the other hand, you can get pork crackling as a bar snack, roast beef & horseradish flavoured crisps & when cooking a roast, one usually uses goose fat for optimum flavour!

You cannot get Mountain Dew in a regular shop here in the UK... just specialty shops like those who import 'candy' from the USA & I have discovered an Asian market which imports it in cans from China!

Fanta is the wrong colour & totally the wrong flavour! Sure, it might be more 'natural' than the colour we have in Australia, but it tastes horrible! Blech!

I really, really miss the Australian rock music I grew up with, not to mention local bands who were popular in the 1980s, which I would hear on the radio from time to time... AC/DC gets played, sometimes, but you never hear The Angels, Dragon, The Models, The Machinations, The Church, The Hoodoo Guru's, Kids in the Kitchen, I'm Talking or Kate Ceberano, Psuedo Echo or (one of my very favourite bands) Real Life!

I really love that I can walk down the street & see snippets of history around me... a row of horrible brown brick houses in the middle of a beautiful Victorian Terrace, courtesy of the Blitz & the quick replacement of buildings during WWII. Also due to WWII are the tarmac platforms at the end of my street, which were the placements for anti-aircraft guns!

I am loving the access to family history resources which are available over here! I have made so many new breakthroughs, not just on the 'net, but in the libraries & repositories of London & Stoke-on-Trent, & I hope to travel more in the near future to cover more sites of family history significance!

Ah, but you CAN get wine gums which I found amazingly addictive, and the worst chocolate I found in London still beat the stuffing out of most of the mainstream stuff here in the US. I love the fact that I've had a pint in pubs older than my nation. (Beer's better too...)

Hey Meredith, Lauren alerted me to your blog. How are you? Sounds like you are having a fine time.Have a look at my blog www.noclothesnoshoes.blogspot.com - I'll be winding it up soon so catch the final excitement of it.Keep posting - I'll be readingAunty Marcelle

About Me

I am a 165cm tall, plump, brunette with an awesome sense of humour! I don't wear nail polish and my favourite thing, besides my faith & my partner is Firefly & all it entails! I love kids, so I worked as a nanny for 16 years and it was one of the best jobs ever! I am now a Children's and Family worker with the Methodist Church & I love it!!
I also love travel, but I can rarely afford to do just what I want! I hope to clear my debts & enjoy travelling more in the not-too-distant-future! I fully appreciate the value of good friends!
My partner and I live in Stoke-on-Trent where my father grew up - whilst my father lives in Melbourne where I grew up!! Funny how life turns out!